screen resolution problem: W98 version 2

[blueone3]

My son uses my Toshiba Satellite laptop which runs W98, v2.
The screen suddenly displays for some reason as what I would call 'little coloured tiles' . I cannot get into the pc to adjust the resolution or reload the operating system, simply bcos I cannot see what I'm doing. Starting in 'safe mode' doesn't work either.
Has anyone got any solutions to this rather awkward problem? Any replies on the forum or directly to my email address: office AT tsec.org.uk. With thanks, Blueone3 (René).

[ski]

The laptop may have either a bad video card(or onboard video adapter), a bad screen, or a bad video cable/connector.
Connect the laptop to an external monitor. If the problem still happens, then the video card/adapter is probably bad. If the problem goes away, then either the screen or an internal cable/connector may be bad.

[blueone3]

thank you ski, I'll check that, :) blueone3

[Sylvander]

Did this problem start just recently?

Could it be due to [your son or someone else making] a change to a Windows configuration setting [it is usually a change to the display settings]?

Has the PC been booted into Windows on less than 5 days since then [sounds like you haven't booted even once all the way into Windows]?

If so...
Try to get to a C:\> prompt [F8 to the Startup Menu] and enter the command...

c:\>[B]scanreg /restore

This will run the scanreg program, that has in the past [it's designed to do this] automatically made a backup at the 1st boot after midnight on each new day on which the PC is booted [it stores 5 of these by default].
When scanreg runs, use it to restore the backup made at the 1st boot of the day on which the problem was introduced.
That will be the last backup listed [if you haven't ever successfully booted into Windows even once since then].

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An alternative method...
[Involves much more preparation in the making of the EBCD, but worth making regardless]
Make an "Emergency Boot CD" [EBCD] [worth having for all the things it can do] and run the "Win98/ME Registry Tool", and don't bother scanning until you've done the following...
Act as if to begin making a backup of your registry.
I think that opens regedit...
Don't make a backup, but instead...
Restore one of the backups shown there by scanreg.

This is from my poor recollection of how it works.

1. How to make a free “Smart Boot Manager” floppy
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41498
This makes it easier to boot a chosen drive [particularly the one holding the EBCD].

2. How to make a free EBCD bootable CD
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41485
This has a number of useful utilities included including "Image" [for DOS, by Terabyte] & "File Manager".
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